


Out of the Equation

by aalikane



Series: Equation 'Verse [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-30
Updated: 2011-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-21 23:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aalikane/pseuds/aalikane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt's drunkenly outburst at Blaine's engagement party changes his and Blaine's relationship forever. How will it end?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> By my standards, my best piece of fanfiction to date. This was originally just a oneshot I wrote after a particularly angsty dream I had the night before. It was written within an hour and a half before school that day, and it snowballed once I posted it on ff.net, and LJ because people wanted a sequel so bad. So I decided to turn it into a short series, with the rest of this story, and two prequels, so far.

It was an engagement party. Blaine's engagement party to be precise. He was marrying the man of his dreams. See Blaine had dreamt of the perfect guy ever since he was a child. Whenever he dreamt, it always came upon the same type of person. Smart, charming, witty and so very poised. Someone who could make him laugh. Someone who would hold him when he cried. Someone who could handle his insane desire to jump on furniture, or his desire to sing romantic love songs to him in public. Blaine loved the thought that one day, he would find his Prince, that one day he would find the man he was meant to spend the rest of his life with.

Then one day, he found him. It was like he was bitch slapped by an iceberg when he finally saw the man who had been facelessly haunting his dreams for the past 10 years. He was smart, witty, charming and so down to earth. Everyone who met Caleb thought he was the perfect complement to Blaine. Everyone except Kurt, that is.

See Kurt wasn't too fond of Caleb. Though there was the initial tension at first… best friend vs. the boyfriend…it never truly went away, and the tension and stress rose. They tried to hide it in front of Blaine, because no matter how much disdain for each other they had, they both cared about Blaine, and neither of them wanted to find out the answer to the "him or me" question that tinkered around in the back of both of their minds. They both knew Blaine well enough to know, that if Kurt put up the question, Caleb would be chosen. If Caleb put up the question, Kurt would win. So it was an unspoken agreement that they would deal with each other in Blaine's presence, and try hard not to be in the same room with each other if it was at all possible.

They each had their reasons for hating the other…and it all stemmed around the same basic concept. Kurt loved Blaine. Kurt knew it. Caleb knew it. Mercedes, Wes, David, and Rachel knew it. Kurt's family knew it. Blaine's family knew it. Everyone knew it but Blaine.

Kurt was sitting bitterly at one of the tables off in the corner of the party clutching a drink, filled mostly with vodka, as he watched the happy couple walk around and mingle with all the guests. He hated that Blaine was happy with some other guy. But he was thrilled that Blaine was happy, period. Rachel came over and sat down next to him. "How you holding up?" she asked him, knowing the answer wouldn't be what she wanted to hear.

"How do you think I'm doing Rachel? I'm watching my best friend celebrate his soon to be wedding. You know, the best friend I've been in love with since I was 17 years old." He hissed at her, not wanting anyone else to hear, especially Caleb or Blaine. It was pathetic really, that Kurt has been miserable for 5 years now, because after he made his feelings perfectly clear to Blaine in the middle of the Lima Bean so many years ago, Blaine still strung him along as his best friend, despite never giving him a chance.

"I know you're angry, Kurt. But you need to cheer up. Blaine's getting married. Why can't you forget your own pain for a few minutes, and enjoy that fact? You care about him right?" She asked, while Kurt had enough of his friend _trying_ to be helpful. He immediately stood up and stalked outside. She followed him. She didn't say anything, but waited for the volcanic eruption, that was sure about to explode.

"Do you know what I'm going through right now Rachel? How hard this is for me? We were supposed to be Harry and Sally!" He yelled at her. Forgetting, that neither of them had closed the doors to the party. "He was supposed to get his act together, and then give me a chance. That's the way it was supposed to work. We were supposed to start dating, go to college together, fall in love, and live our lives together. That's how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to have a chance." He sobbed. Rachel walked over to him and just held him for a moment.

"Kurt, I know it's painful. I know it is. But you can't keep doing this to yourself. You're going to find someone out there that is perfect for you. Someone who makes you happy, and doesn't make you cry like this." He fell to the ground, something sober, non-crying Kurt would never have done, in his Armani suit.

"Why me Rachel? Why am I always the one dealing with the pain? Why can I never be the one whose happy?" He asked her, not sure if the answer was something he wanted to hear or not.

"I wish I could tell you Kurt. I wish I knew the answer. I wish I could give you an answer that wasn't a cliché, but there's nothing that can make you feel better right now." It's true. Telling him that what doesn't kill him, will only make him stronger, will not only hurt him more, but make him want to hurt _her._ Telling him that the pain will fade, will not only make his personality fade, but make his heart smash to pieces. She couldn't risk doing that to him.

"I love him, Rachel. Why can't he see that? Why can't he fucking see that I've loved him since we were juniors in high school?"

"Maybe because he's blind." A new voice entered the conversation, right after the click of the two French doors that had lead to the patio. Both Rachel and Kurt looked up and saw Blaine standing there, with a pained expression written all over his face. It was almost as if it were a movie, because nothing like this ever happens in real life.

"Blaine, don't.." Rachel tried to hold him off, but Blaine held out his hand to stop her.

"Rachel… can you give Kurt and I a moment alone?" She looked to Kurt, whose eyes were bloodshot, and his face was blotchy and tear-stained.

"Will you be okay?" She asked her friend, and he looked between the two. He nodded his head, and sent her off into the house. After she went back into the house, Blaine and Kurt stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, neither saying a word. Kurt didn't want to chance embarrassing himself further, and Blaine didn't know what to say. Finally, Kurt decided to end the silence.

"You shouldn't be out here. You should be in there, with Caleb and your guests." He told the love of his life. Blaine nodded, but didn't move toward the house, instead moving towards Kurt.

"I am with one of my guests." He told him. "Why don't we sit?" he asked, gesturing to the patio furniture off to the side. Blaine suggested sitting down for two reasons: 1, because sitting always makes things like this a little less awkward; and 2, because it was blocked by a hedge so that curious party-goers and gossip mongers couldn't see what was happening, and try to read their lips. "Kurt, why didn't you say something?" he asked, after they both sat down on the green table chairs. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I did." Kurt whispered, not confident enough to say it loud and proud.

"Telling me that you had a crush on me in our junior year of high school does not count Kurt." Blaine reasoned.

"It wasn't a crush Blaine. It was never just a crush." Kurt swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. "I don't know exactly when. But remember when we sang 'Baby it's Cold Outside' ? Well, when Mr. Schue came in after we finished…he was the first person I ever admitted it to." Kurt confessed.

"To what?" Blaine asked, confused.

"That I loved you, damn it!" Kurt's voice rose as he shot up from his chair. Blaine looked like he had been hit with a slushie facial, but Kurt didn't care, he was about to get on a roll, and no one was going to stop him. "He walked in, and asked if you were someone special, and you have no idea how much I wish I could have told him yes, that you were. But because there was nothing going on between us, I told him that no, you were only a friend. However on the bright side, I was in love with you, and you were actually gay, so it was an improvement over my last crush. However my crush on Finn was never love, not really." Kurt was pacing back and forth as he continued his diatribe.

"You're such a flirty bastard you know that?" He asked his best friend, who was clearly shocked for words. "Do you realize how hard it was, to control the urge to jump you every time you flirted with me when we were at the Lima Bean, or at Dalton? How every time you flirted with me, a little piece of my heart broke, because I knew that it meant nothing to you? How unfair it was?"

"Kurt, I'm sorry."

"Don't tell me you're sorry, Blaine!" Kurt screamed. "Don't tell me that you didn't realize what you were doing. Don't you realize how much worse that makes it? I've absolutely loved you for all these years, and you acted like I was just another one of the Warblers who hung onto your every word in hopes of ever getting a duet with you, because god knows that we'd never outshine you enough to get a solo ourselves." Kurt stood in front of him and saw how Blaine's normal dapper, composed self-restraint was crumbling, but Kurt didn't care. He finally had a forum to get all his pent up frustrations out, and if he lost Blaine in the process, it might just allow him to heal.

"Then we went to college…finally…both of us. At NYU. You and me, never tiring of one another. Still my feelings grew fonder and stronger. It physically hurt me to not be able to be with you Blaine. Don't you remember that semester when you were dating that ditzy blonde idiot?" Blaine nodded. "I wasn't throwing up every day because I had a weird stomach bug that just wouldn't go away Blaine. You dating someone else, physically made me ill."

The memories of that semester came flooding back to the both of them. Kurt perched over the toilet as he purged his stomach. Blaine kneeling beside him, gently rubbing concentric circles into his back, and having mouthwash ready for him to use, while trying to make his best friend feel better. Because that's what friends do right?

"Kurt…I thought you had gotten over it…" Blaine gulped.

"You know me better than that Blaine." Kurt whispered. "I told you what it took for me to finally get over Finn." He said, alluding to Finn calling him a fag in the middle of his own bedroom that night during Kurt's sophomore year of high school. "Did you really think that a little time was going to allow me to get over you, when it took such a huge massive blowup for me to get over Finn?"

"Kurt, I didn't know…" Blaine told him, apology written all over his face.

"I know you didn't. That's what makes this so hard." Kurt sat back down in the chair opposite Blaine, and just held his head in his hands. "I can't do this anymore, Blaine. I can't sit by and watch you marry someone else." Kurt didn't dare look up at Blaine as he said this. "I can't stand with you at the altar and be your best man." Blaine had told Kurt the moment he and Caleb announced their engagement, that he wanted Kurt as his Best Man, and Kurt reluctantly agreed. "I can't go to your wedding and watch you marry someone, when I wish it was me instead. I'd be too tempted to stand up and object. Morally, I can't let myself ask you to dump him for me. So I'm going to do the next best thing, and take myself out of the equation. Goodbye Blaine." Kurt's voice broke on the last sentence and he started to cry again, but stood up and walked off the patio, towards his car. Blaine was still sitting there speechless by the time he heard the car rev up and pull out of the driveway.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Kurt ran off into the night, Rachel, Blaine and Caleb discuss what happened, and come to the harrowing realization that Kurt may be in danger.

It had been 10 minutes after Kurt had left the engagement party that anyone came out to check on Blaine. Blaine had just been sitting in the same place that Kurt had left him in, the green patio chairs. He had no idea where things went so wrong. One minute he was having the time of his life, enjoying a party thrown solely for him and his fiancé, and then the next thing he knew, his best friend of 5 years was declaring love for him, and then storming out without letting Blaine process anything that had happened.

Scenarios were running through his head of what would have happened if Kurt hadn't exploded at the party…if he had kept things bottled up. Would this have happened at the wedding? Would it have happened sometime after him and Caleb were married? Would Blaine have had children with Caleb at the time? Would Kurt have ever said anything? All these things kept swimming through his head by the time Caleb made it outside, once again behind the hedges so nosey party guests wouldn't be able to look in on the private moment between the couple that was about to take place.

"So, do you want to tell me what happened?" Caleb asked his fiancé, and the love of his life. If he was honest with himself, he'd say that he was nervous to know the answer. He knew that Kurt was in love with Blaine, and had known for quite some time. He and Kurt had a few hushed, implied conversations about it that Kurt tried in vain to deny, that which Caleb saw right through. Caleb wasn't an idiot (then again, neither was Blaine; he was just blind), but he did know love when he saw it. Kurt definitely had love for Blaine, and as much as he hated to admit it, Kurt knew Blaine better than Caleb did, even though both him and Blaine were trying to overcome that particular setback.

"I honestly don't know what happened, Caleb. I mean, I knew he had a crush on me back in high school…but I thought he had moved passed it." Blaine looked up at his fiancé and Caleb could see the pain in his eyes. He knew that Blaine loved Kurt in a way that old friends will always love each other, and that Blaine would never want Kurt to be in pain because of him.

"Then you're the only one who thought he wasn't in love with you." Caleb muttered, but clearly enough that Blaine was able to understand precisely what Caleb was trying to say. The pain that had been in Blaine's eyes slowly changed into something Caleb couldn't quite place.

"You knew?" Blaine asked his fiancé who just nodded his head. "How…" Caleb sighed and sat down in the chair that was across from Blaine, the same one Kurt had been sitting in less than 15 minutes prior.

"Blaine, you know you're oblivious to things like this." Blaine tried to sputter out an objection and Caleb laughed. "Remember what happened when we first started dating? We went out 5 times before you realized that I was in it for something more than just friendship? Despite all the affection, the hand holding, the hugging, and how I refused to let you pay…like ever?" Blaine smiled as he remembered back to the beginning of their courtship.

"I remember."

"You hadn't realized that we were dating at the time, and had I not finally brought you to your sense, and kissed you in the middle of Central Park, I think we'd still be stuck in the friends zone."

"Never." Blaine smiled and leaned in to take Caleb's hands. "I'd have figured it out eventually."

"Now I'm not going to defend Kurt, not after what he just pulled, but can you see how you were so oblivious to it? How you just overlooked how much he loved you, even if he tried like hell to not let it show?"

"But Kurt and I…we never did anything like…" Blaine trailed off when the proverbial light bulb clicked in his head. Suddenly it all came flooding back to him. The first few months of his and Kurt's friendship was exactly like that of the first few months of his and Caleb's. Except Blaine was more receptive to Caleb's advances than Kurt's.

"What?"

"I'm a fool. I did the same thing to him." Blaine whispered out. "No wonder he feels like I led him on this entire time."

"What do you mean?"

"It was exactly the same. You and I….and Kurt and me. It was exactly alike. You and I went out on dates that I thought were nothing…and he and I went out on dates that I thought were nothing." Caleb nodded having figured this out already through the many stories the two had told over the last couple of years. Blaine let out a bitter laugh. "That's probably why I thought ours were nothing…cause I had done that with just a friend before." Blaine shook his head and let it fall into his hands. "I'm a moron."

"You're not a moron, Blaine. You're just oblivious." Caleb smiled as he leaned in and pulled his fiancé into a hug, which eventually lead to pulling him onto his lap. They just held each other for what seemed like forever, taking solace in that they were still both there for each other. But they knew that this conversation wasn't over. "Blaine?" Caleb spoke his fiancé's name.

"Hmm?"

"What are you going to do about Kurt?" he asked hesitantly. Blaine tensed up, because honestly he had no clue. He didn't know what he could do. One relationship he had, had already been blown up tonight, and he was sure that one wrong word could quite possibly blow up the other most important relationship he's ever had.

"I don't know. Honestly, Caleb, the idea of talking to Kurt right now is making my head hurt. Knowing that he is that angry and upset. Knowing that he's been hiding all this from me for so long." Caleb nodded and rubbed Blaine's back. "He told me that back in college…that the fact that I was dating someone…physically made him ill. How is that possible?"

"Think about how you would feel if I went out and dated someone else, Blaine. While you thought we belonged together. Imagine how you'd feel if I went and screwed some random guy while you pined over me?" Blaine shuddered as the thought passed through his head. Caleb chuckled. "Don't worry, never going to happen."

"The thing I don't get…is how did he keep this a secret for so long?" Blaine slowly got off his fiancé's lap and started pacing. "How can someone hold all that in for so long? Hell every time I thought I was in love, I couldn't keep it inside for more than a few weeks!" He screamed. "And seriously, did he think this was the best time to let his emotions rule his life? At our engagement party? Seriously?" Neither of them heard the door to the house opening up and seeing Rachel step outside, hearing the last few things Blaine had said.

"Do you honestly think he planned for this to happen?" She asked the two men in front of her. "This was such a disaster." She sighed. "This was all my fault." She groaned. Both of them looked at her, their interest piqued.

"Oh do tell, Rachel." Caleb raised his eyebrows.

"Did either of you see him, before the… explosion?" She asked them, knowing the answer before they had the time to respond. They both shook their heads, negative. "I did. I knew this was going to be an awful night for him….for obvious reasons." She looked pointedly at the two of them. "What I didn't realize is how bad he was going to fall. He was working on his second bottle of vodka for the night." She revealed. "We all know what type of drunk Kurt is." Alluding to the time that the four of them, and about 5 others from college went out pub crawling on St. Patrick's day their senior year and Kurt ended up yelling at every random person he met that their fashion sense was worse than that of a 2 year old and that they needed to go to fashion hell because clearly that was the only place their outfits would fit in. "This was your night, and as much as it hurts me to say this…" because really Rachel was Kurt's best friend, Blaine's friend, and Caleb's acquaintance, "I couldn't let him ruin your night. So I was going to try and get him to stop….but then it blew up…and ruined your night anyway."

"You knew about this too?" Blaine asked, dismayed that he was the only one who didn't seem to know that Kurt had been in love with him. She nodded. "How is it that I'm the last to know? He's my best friend?"

"Blaine, you did know. You had to have seen it. You had to have noticed it. I know he tried to hide it from you as best that he could, but I know he couldn't do it all the time." Blaine shook his head.

"No. This would have been addressed long before tonight, had I any knowledge of it." He insisted. He had to insist on it. Because otherwise it would just be too hard to face. He didn't know that Kurt had loved him…did he? It's not like a high school crush could ever turn into true love…right?

"Blaine, do you really want me to list all the times that it was so evident that he was in love with you? Do you really need me to explain it to you?" She threw her hands up in the air and that's when Blaine saw the wedding ring on her finger. Blaine shook his head.

High school crushes never turn into true love…. Except when you're Rachel Berry and marry Finn right out of college.

"No…you don't have to. He… made a few of those times…painfully clear."

But Rachel and Finn were different to him and Kurt. Rachel and Finn dated in high school. He and Kurt didn't. Rachel and Finn went to movies together…they spent most of their time together… Finn would buy her coffee every morning of their senior year, while Rachel would meet him outside his last class of the day and they'd walk out to the parking lot where they'd go off and spend the afternoon together. It was nothing like him and Kurt's friendship in high school. Absolutely nothing.

"What happened after I went back inside?" She asked him.

No, nothing that Rachel and Finn did in high school sounded remotely like what Blaine and Kurt did. Kurt and Blaine were never in a relationship to break up 4 different times. Rachel and Finn couldn't spend time apart and maintain their relationship. Even after Kurt returned to McKinley, him and Blaine's friendship continued and never wavered. Rachel didn't go to the same college as Finn, simply because they were dating. It's so much different to when Blaine transferred to McKinley to help protect Kurt from Karofsky. No, it was totally different.

"Short version or long version? Short version is that he laid into me about being a 'flirty bastard' who kept him in the friend zone for far too long, and who made him throw up every time I spent time with my boyfriend sophomore year of college."

Yes, because Kurt and Blaine went to the same college, and not only that, were roommates there as well as when they were at Dalton. They worked so well together, that many would have said that they were codependent.

"Well you can't blame him for the flirty bastard comment," Caleb quipped. "Because you are." All three of them on the patio smiled.

"Indeed. I seem to recall quite a bit of flirting and a bit more during a certain party in high school…" Rachel raised her eyebrows at Blaine and he blushed.

"We were drunk, get off my back!" Rachel burst out into laughter at the memory of the house party that her friends had pre-named a trainwreck.

"Oh Blaine, darling. I was there, remember? I know just how drunk we both were." Caleb was smirking because he had heard this story numerous times and found it insanely amusing. "But even that party…another reminder of how much Kurt liked you. Remember the next few days?" Blaine thought back to the argument in the coffee shop that day, and he never really understood Kurt's dislike for Blaine's experimenting with Rachel phase. But tonight gave him a whole new perspective

"I never understood why he got so angry…" and it was like a light bulb going off in his head. "God…I'm an idiot."

"Pretty much." Caleb muttered.

"Gee, thanks." Blaine whipped around and turned on his fiancé.

"Hey, just stating the truth. You're the one who refused to notice the truth, when I could see it from the 2nd time I ever met him." He gave a pointed look to Blaine who just sighed.

"So what? Do you want a medal? Because you're more observant? Or because you know my friends better than I do?" He said bitterly.

"That's not it, and you know it." Caleb admonished his fiancé while putting his arms around him and whispering in his ear, and once again Blaine sighed.

"I know, I know. I just…" he trailed off and once again had no clue what to say. "What the hell happens now? We go off and get married, and I never speak to Kurt again? I never see him again? My best friend?"

No one knew what to say, because no one knew the answer. There were some questions that just didn't have any answers readily available. They had to be discovered, and couldn't just be given by some arbitrary person.

"Blaine, you know I love you. But I know that Kurt's been a part of your life, far longer than I have. It's up to you to decide what needs to be done about this. I can't make this decision for you. Even if you wanted me to, I couldn't."

"I know." Blaine kept thinking back to Kurt's diatribe from earlier in the day and suddenly had a look of panic on his head. "Holy shit, Rachel, did you say he had already drank an entire bottle of vodka?" She nodded. "He just stalked out of here and drove off in his Corvette..." All three of them gasped. They all quickly ran out towards the driveway and looked in the direction of Kurt's apartment. It was only about 10 blocks away but they didn't see anything.

"Maybe he just…you know… sped off and realized what he was doing. " There was a hint of hope and distress in Rachel's voice. "Maybe he pulled over and started walking home instead…he's smart enough…he's never driven drunk before…right?" She was desperately hoping that Kurt was smart enough to pull over. Praying to her God that he pulled over.

It was then that they heard the faint rumble of sirens in the distance.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine, Caleb, Rachel and Finn are all waiting in the hospital to find out what happened to Kurt. Will everything be okay, or will another brick be pulled out, to destroy Blaine's emotional wellbeing?

Earlier that day, when Blaine and Caleb had been busy prepping for the party, making sure the caterers were on schedule, making sure the bar was fully stocked, and the bartender was going to be on time, neither of them had any idea that this was going to be the ending to their day. Sitting in the middle of New York Mercy Hospital's Emergency Room waiting room, waiting for news on Kurt's condition. Luckily with Rachel being Kurt's sister in law, she was able to get news of how he was doing, without the stupid 'family only' hospital policy getting in their way.

* * *

After the three of them had heard the sirens, Blaine's face fell to an all time low, and Caleb knew that he was concerned about what that siren could have possibly meant. Caleb wasn't a bad person. He knew that no matter what happened tonight, Blaine still cared about Kurt, and that if Kurt was in trouble, Blaine would want to find out if there was anyway to help. It was just the type of person Blaine was. "Rachel, why don't you and Blaine go see if you can find out what happened. I'll go break up the party. Call me if you guys get any news. I'll call you when I'm done here, and I'll come find you." He told her and then turned to Blaine. "Go." Blaine nodded and hugged his fiancé and pecked him quickly on the lips before him and Rachel rushed off towards Rachel's car.

It was so heart wrenching, this entire night. It was supposed to be a joyous occasion but the entire thing was destroyed by one person's actions. Excessive imbibing. Exploding emotions. Running off and doing something extremely stupid like drunk driving. Kurt's actions completely ruined this night for Caleb, and Caleb wanted to hate him for it. He really did. He wanted to hate Kurt's outburst and subsequent declaration of love for _his_ fiancé, he wanted to tell Kurt to get lost, and that Blaine was _his_ and that Kurt lost his chance when he never said anything throughout their five years of friendship. But even Caleb knew that he couldn't do that. It goes back to the whole _"it's him, or me"_ question. He can't make Blaine choose between Kurt and him… Blaine has to decide what to do on his own, and Caleb has to be there to support him.

* * *

After Rachel and Blaine hopped into her car and started speeding off towards Kurt's apartment building, they saw the lights flashing a few blocks away and heard the sirens getting louder. "Please no…" Blaine whispered as they pulled up to the wreckage. It was a disaster. The car was a wreck, wrapped up around a telephone pole so the two ends of the car were touching.

They both recognized the car.

They both ran out of the car and ran up to the scene where officers were blocking people from approaching. They tried to get back, but an officer, who looked to be rather young to be on the force, kept them back. "Sorry folks, but no one is allowed back there."

"You don't understand. That's my brother-in-law!" Rachel pleaded with the man. "Please!" The man looked back and saw that Kurt's limp body was being taken out of the car on a stretcher and being pulled towards the awaiting ambulance. "Oh God, Kurt!" She yelled and pushed past the officer with Blaine hot on her heels, not even caring about the consequences of failing to obey the officer. They both ran up to the stretcher and walked along with the paramedics and the two of them had trouble blinking back the tears in their eyes.

"Kurt…" Blaine choked out after a few seconds. It was a horrible sight. Kurt's face was battered and the view of fresh bruises were starting to form. He was completely unconscious. Had Blaine not seen the rise and fall of his chest, he'd have thought that Kurt had died.

"Is he going to be okay?" Rachel asked one of the paramedics.

"We don't know right now. He didn't have his seat belt on and he's lucky that the airbag prevented more damage that could have happened. We have to get him to the hospital, now."

"I'm going with you." Blaine spoke up.

"One person, family only." Blaine looked heart broken.

"Blaine, let's go. We'll follow behind them, and be there within minutes." Rachel tried to convince him. Blaine shook his head.

"You go with them Rachel."

"You've been drinking tonight Blaine; we're not having two accidents tonight. Get in the car; we'll be right behind them." She pushed him towards her car, and asked the paramedic that was closing up the ambulance which hospital they would be going to. Once she got the information she ran to the car and they were off.

"Did you see him? He was hurt…so badly…" Blaine started spouting off random bits of words that Rachel couldn't quite hear all the way. She was too focused on getting to New York Mercy.

"Blaine, call Caleb. Tell him what happened and where we'll be. Tell him to grab Finn and bring him along as well." Blaine tried to grasp his phone, but it kept fumbling around in his hands because he was shaking so much. This whole experience was harrowing and really messing with his usual calm demeanor. "Blaine!" Rachel screamed at the man next to her that had been regulated to a quivering mess. "Calm down. You won't be any good for Kurt if you can't get a grip. I know this is hard. It's hard on me too, but you have got to get a grip." She scolded him.

"What if he's…?"

"Do not think that Blaine." She curtly tells him. "Do not say it, do not imply it, and do not even think it. Kurt is a fighter and he will pull through. Do you understand me?" Blaine nods and takes a few deep breaths before he finally quit shaking enough to call Caleb to tell him what happened and where they were going.

* * *

It was now an hour later, and the two couples, the Hudsons, and the Anderson/Grants were sitting in the corner of the waiting room. One of them was a complete wreck. Another was trying to hold themselves together but knew all it took was one look at the other three to break down into tears. Another was just staring at the ceiling not knowing how he should feel about Kurt getting drunk and going off like he did. The last was lost. He had known Kurt had been in love with Blaine (everyone did) but he had been in the bathroom when the outburst started at the party and after his wife tried to explain the whole thing to him, he was trying to balance out how he felt about the whole situation.

"So he drove into a telephone pole?" Finn asked, for the 3rd time. Blaine and Rachel nodded. "Why the hell would he drink and drive? He knows the dangers. He's not an idiot. I mean…even as teens whenever the two of us would go somewhere together…one of us would be the designated driver…He knows what could happen." No one said anything for about 5 minutes.

Blaine finally spoke up. "This is my fault. Why did I let him run off? I could have stopped him from running towards his car. I could have stopped him from driving off." Blaine blamed himself. But Caleb wouldn't have any of that.

"Blaine, no. This is not your fault. Kurt made the mistake of driving after downing so much alcohol. You were not in the right state of mind to be responsible at the time; this is not your fault." Caleb insisted.

"Kurt also wasn't in the right state to be responsible at the time. Is it not his fault?" Blaine shot back.

"Blaine, it is his fault. As much as none of us, even me, want him to be hurt, you cannot deny that he committed a huge party foul when he drove drunk tonight. If he had enough clarity to confess his love to you, quite coherently, at our engagement party, then he possessed enough clarity to realize that driving shouldn't have happened."

Finn was about to interrupt to defend Kurt when one of the doctors came out into the emergency room and called out "Family of Hummel?" And the four of them stood up immediately to walk over towards him. "And you are?"

Finn spoke up, "I'm his brother, and this is my wife. These are our friends." The doctor nodded. "Is he alright?" Once again, the doctor nodded.

"Kurt is quite lucky, and at the same time, not so lucky. Kurt wasn't wearing his seatbelt, which caused his head to smash into the steering wheel mere milliseconds before the airbag deployed, which pushed him back into his seat. According to the police and the way the car was wrapped around the telephone pole, it's likely that he flailed around in the car for a few seconds while the crash was happening, causing contusions on his left shoulder where he bumped into the window. He is also suffering from a concussion and whiplash due to the crash. His head was severely whipped back and forth and his head hit the driver's side window. We also took a BAC test, and his blood alcohol level was a .16, which is twice the legal limit. Due to the concussion and the alcohol, Kurt fell unconscious during the crash, and is now in a coma."

"Is he going to be okay?" Blaine asked, getting visibly upset.

"Physically, he should be fine. No internal organs were injured, aside from the concussion to his brain. The only problem is the concussion. If he wakes up within the next 48 hours, then there's likely to be no lasting damage. However the longer he stays in the coma, the less likely it will be that he wakes up." Rachel and Blaine gasped as Finn and Caleb embraced their respective partners and held them close.

"Can we see him?" Finn asked.

"Of course. Follow me." They all followed the doctor into the patient room that Kurt was lying unconscious in. Blaine and Rachel took one look at Kurt and his face was even more bruised than it was earlier when they saw him on the scene of the accident and they both turned to each other. It was a horrible. How could this have happened to Kurt? He never did anything wrong, he always followed the rules. It just wasn't fair to him that he was in this situation.

Blaine walked up to Kurt's bed, sat down on the edge and took his hand and just held it. Caleb didn't miss the gesture.

"Come on, Kurt. Wake up. Don't do this to yourself." Blaine pleaded with Kurt. "Wake up for us. Finn and Rachel are here too Kurt, come on." Caleb once again didn't miss the lack of his name mentioned.

"With the alcohol in his system, he likely won't wake up tonight." The doctor said. "It's very dangerous to have that much alcohol in one's system. Do any of you know why he had been drinking so much?" The guilty looks upon all four of their faces told the doctor that they did, indeed know. "If he has a drinking problem, he needs to get help. Covering for him, won't help him." He reminded them. Rachel shook her head.

"No, he doesn't have a drinking problem…at least not as far as any of us know. We were all at a party tonight….and it was rough on him." She subtly evaded the problem at hand, not wanting to drag yet another person into the problems of Kurt and Blaine. The doctor accepted that reason and walked out of the room to give them all some privacy.

"I'm going to go call mom and Burt. Hopefully mom will pick up and she'll be able to break it to Burt gently. Don't want Burt going to the hospital due to another heart attack." Rachel nodded and walked out with him.

"I'm going to call Mercedes. You know if she finds out tomorrow or the next day she'll throw a bitch fit that she wasn't informed sooner." Blaine would have laughed, had Kurt not been in such dire straits. Caleb could tell that Blaine needed some time alone and decided to go get some coffee for the two of them before quickly kissing the side of Blaine's head and leaving the room.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later when Caleb returned to the room, the room was slightly open and he could hear Blaine talking to Kurt, trying to coax him to wake up. He stood outside, listening in.

"Come on, Kurt. Wake up for me. Don't do this. I know you're in pain, I know you're hurt but you can't do this to me. You can't just tell me you love me, and then go off and put yourself into a coma!" He tried joking, but he couldn't find it within himself to laugh. "Remember back when we first met? You were such an endearing spy…coming in and sticking out like a sore thumb. It's a shock that with your fashion sense, you didn't try and find out the Dalton uniform before coming to spy on us but…I'm glad you did it the way you did. I probably never would have befriended you had you not been from a rival glee club looking for asylum." He smiled. "You were so great that day. You opened up to me, someone you had just met, and I couldn't believe it. You never stopped. You used to tell me everything, Kurt. So why did it take so long to tell me this?" Caleb could hear Blaine's sobs. It was breaking Caleb's heart to hear his fiancé this heartbroken over someone else.

"I never understood what anyone meant by _not realizing what you have, until you don't have it_ , and truth be told I'm desperately wishing that I did not understand it right now. You need to wake up Kurt. If not for me, do it for Finn and Rachel. Do it for your father and Carole. Do it for yourself. I know tonight was horrible but Kurt, you need to wake up. I don't think I could deal with it, if you stayed in this coma." Caleb peaked inside, through the crack between the door and the wall and saw Blaine sitting on the chair in Kurt's room, which he had pulled right next to the bed. He was holding Kurt's hand and his head was leaning on the mattress. Caleb could hear Blaine trying not to cry, trying not to be hurt that Kurt had put himself in such danger because of Blaine. "Don't do this to me, Kurt. Please…just wake up."

Caleb walked away from the room, still holding the two cups of coffee that he had gotten. Watching Blaine in the hospital room at Kurt's bedside…listening to what he was saying, made him wonder if Blaine would do that for him? A year ago Caleb had broken his leg after a skiing accident which was the fault of some novice idiot who didn't know how to stop. Blaine showed no sympathy for him, and played the _I told you so_ card on him after Blaine tried to stop him from skiing down the advanced trail. But here he was, at Kurt's bedside, after an accident that was completely Kurt's fault, crying and desperate for Kurt to get better.

Maybe it was because a broken leg wasn't nearly as bad as a coma, but is that all it was? Was there something else that kept Blaine from showing _him_ that kind of empathy?

Forty-five minutes later Blaine walked out of Kurt's room after one of the nurses came in to tell him that visiting hours were over and that he had to leave for the night. Blaine was not prepared to leave. He was being forced out of the room, but he wasn't leaving the hospital. As he sat down next to Caleb he reached for the now cold coffee and spoke up. "What happened to you? I thought you were going to bring the coffee back to the room?"

"I was." He said curtly, staring down at the table in front of them, not bothering to look up when Blaine entered the room.

"What happened?" Blaine asked, confused as to why he was drinking cold coffee, when he could have been drinking hot coffee earlier.

"I heard you in there." He said. "Walked to the room earlier and overheard you talking to him." Blaine's face paled even more than it had already been.

"I said…quite a bit in there to him while no one else was there. What did you hear me say?" Blaine asked his fiancé. Blaine knew some of the things he said to Kurt could be taken out of context if anyone were eavesdropping, and he wanted to know exactly what he was dealing with before he spoke up to Caleb.

"Don't do this Kurt? Don't do this to me? I don't think I could deal with it, if you stayed in this coma?" Caleb bitterly replied. Blaine nodded, but said nothing. "What no explanation?" Caleb scoffed.

"What do you want me to say, Caleb? You know how much Kurt means to me. How much he's always meant to me. What happened tonight does not change that fact." Blaine calmly told him. "He's still my best friend."

"Are you sure that's all he is?" Caleb asked, clearly annoyed. "Are you sure that that's all he is to you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Blaine asked. "Are you insinuating what I think you are?" Blaine's undapperish temper was getting the better of him. "You're my fiancé. Not him. Remember?"

"I remember. I just wanted to make sure you did. Because I've never seen you express any type of outpouring of emotions for anything like you did just then. Not when your dad collapsed his lung last year, not when your grandmother died two years ago, and never with me. So I have to wonder. Is it really me that you want to be with?" Caleb asked him, getting simultaneously angry and saddened.

"Of course I do. I lo-"

"Think about it, Blaine." He interrupts Blaine's protests. "You love him. You can claim that you're not _in_ love with him, but we both know that you love him." Blaine thinks about it for a second but slowly nods his head. This was a given. He's always loved Kurt, but in a completely brotherly/platonic way. Not in the way that Kurt has loved him. Or so he believes. "Even you have to admit that you two are, at times codependent on each other."

"Not true." Blaine adamantly objects.

"Give me your phone." Caleb holds his hand out, and Blaine digs it out of his pocket and hands it over, without knowing why. "Now, if I click on text messages, what are the chances that he will be the last 10 texts that you sent?" He raised his eyebrows as Blaine quickly tries to remember who he last texted, but hangs his head when he realizes that what Caleb says is true. "Now if I go and click on calls, aside from the one you made to me earlier after the accident, how many will the two of you have made to each other in the past 48 hours? My guess would be about 5, ranging anywhere from 10 minutes, to an hour each time."

And sure enough when Caleb made it to 'Old Messages' 5 of the last 6 calls were to Kurt, and they totaled about 3 ½ hours of talking time. "You don't even call me that much, Blaine."

"You and I live together! I see you every day. I don't see him every day, so what if I want to talk him?"

"That's not the point Blaine!"

"Then what is it?"

"I always thought I was imagining it." Caleb's voice returned to a normal volume and he to choke on some of his words. "The way you would look at him when no one was looking. It was as if you were staring at your soul mate, even if you didn't realize it at the time. I always thought…that if given enough time you'd look at me the same way."

"That's ridiculous Caleb. I love you. I'm in love with you. I'm marrying, _you_." While all of that may be true, it still doesn't negate the fact that Caleb was insecure in his relationship with Blaine, for a very good reason.

"Where do you see us in 10 years? Describe it to me? Don't think about it, just tell me." Blaine was taken aback for a moment, not sure what to say.

"You can't picture it can you? The fact that you're so shocked that I even asked that question, makes me wonder why you said yes when I proposed." If Blaine had proposed, then Caleb would likely be a bit more secure in their engagement, but Blaine didn't. Caleb did. Caleb proposed after at a romantic dinner, where he had the ring placed delicately on the cheesecake Blaine loved so much. "I can. I can picture us living in Long Island in little 3 bedroom Colonial that we purchased in about 3 years after we tire of city life. I see us having children, adoption, because there are enough children in the world without loving homes, to bring in another one into the world. We'd have three of them, two boys, and one girl."

"Of course I think about our future Caleb." Blaine tries to tell him, but Caleb's not buying…at least not completely.

"As vividly as I do? Do you imagine painting the nursery days before we receive our first child, in a subtle green so it can turn into his bedroom as he grows older? Because our first child would be a boy, you know. We'd name him Seth and he'd be amazing. Can you imagine watching him as he grows up? Watching him as he learns to play baseball and soccer? Worrying every time he steps out onto the field in case he gets hurt? I do."

"Caleb…"

"Blaine I love you. I've loved you for a long time. But neither of us can pretend that what happened tonight didn't happen. It did. I can't marry you, and sit by as he pines for you and you just…lead him on." Caleb takes a deep breath and continues. I told myself that I would never tell you this. I promised myself that I would never give you this ultimatum. But after tonight, I don't think I have a choice. It's either him, or me, Blaine. You need to choose. You need to think carefully about which of us, you want in your life. After tonight, you can't have both of us."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Kurt still lying comatose, Blaine has to decide whether he'll choose Kurt, or Caleb. But when Kurt wakes up, and he and Blaine talk, will everything be okay?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of "Out of the Equation" Hope you all enjoy.

" _Blaine, honey! Can you go strip Becca for me? I'm having a hard time dealing with Marc in the tub, and she's up for a bath next" Blaine heard his husband yell out to him. Blaine wasn't sure where he was. This definitely wasn't reality. Reality was currently a bad place. This place seemed almost nice. He was sitting in the middle of a beige painted living room with a brown couch, watching the Buckeyes game on a rather large flat panel Plasma television that was mounted on the opposite wall. As Blaine looked around, he noticed that this definitely wasn't what his home with Caleb looked like. Neither Caleb, nor Blaine were this decorative, with all the knick knacks around, and tchotchke items lying around. No, this most definitely was not the home he and Caleb would have created…. Maybe they hired a professional decorator? That's probably it. Either way he got up and walked around…trying to gain some bearing on where he was._

'This has to be a dream _' He told himself. It wasn't that big of a stretch, considering Blaine had a tendency to 'wake up' from his dreams, while still dreaming. He could then take hold of his dreams and lead them down a direction his conscious mind wanted, instead of his subconscious one._

 _He found his way into a small pink room, where he heard the telltale squeals of a little girl playing. It was almost surreal, seeing his_ daughter, _a little girl around 2 or 3 years old, sitting there, playing with about 5 Barbie dolls, all_ fully clothed, _because what little girl actually re-clothed her Barbie dolls after undressing them? Certainly none of the little girls Blaine knew as a little boy, which was mainly his 5 female cousins all within a couple years of his own age. It was strange. The clothes looked almost unique… Something that never would have come from the imaginations of Mattel._

" _Becca?" Blaine asked hesitantly._

" _Yes Papa?"_

'Oh…' _that one word hit him in the chest. He never thought about what his children would call him. He knew there were a lot of different ways to call the male parent: dad, daddy, pop, papa, father, padre, pére etc… But he never knew what they would call him. He now had his answer._ Papa….

" _Yes Becca, it's time for your bath." He said as he leant down and picked her up to give her a hug, a tight, bear grip of a hug._

" _Papa!" she squealed, before flinging her arms around his neck and returning the hug with gusto._

 _Blaine never thought he'd experience this. He never thought he'd get to hear someone call him_ Papa, _and give him a hug that only a child can give a parent. It was something that he rarely ever dreamt about, because he never wanted to get his hopes up. But something about this moment, felt so real, like it might actually happen to him. "Come on Becca, time for your bath." He sat her down and got her ready for her bath with her…other father? Who was it?_

 _Blaine had been in this dream for a while now, and hadn't been able to figure it out yet. He had only heard his… husband? Say something once, and even then he couldn't make out the voice. It was almost as if his subconscious mind had been blocking him from being able to figure it out. "Go on Becca, you know where the bathroom is!" he pushed her out the room and she ran towards the light coming from the end of the hall. He slowly followed her, trying to hold his breath and control his breathing as he came upon who his sub-conscious felt was a suitable choice in husband for him._

 _But out of nowhere he heard someone yelling his name…."Blaine?" His world was slowly starting to shake. "Blaine?"_

 _  
_

And then it ended. He had woken up to the voice of 'Rachel fuck-up-my-dreams Berry Hudson.' "Blaine, are you okay? Where's Caleb?"

Blaine looked around to see where he was. In the hospital waiting room. Where Caleb had left him. Oh god… a tear slowly slid down Blaine's cheek.

"Blaine?" Finn asked as he took a seat next to Blaine.

"Caleb left." he told his friends.

"What do you mean, he left?" Rachel demanded. Blaine just took a look at his left hand, and fingered the ring that was on his finger.

"He left…earlier. He said he was going back to the house. Get some sleep, bring a fresh pair of clothes for me. I wasn't planning on leaving." He lied to them. He couldn't tell them what Caleb demanded of him. He wasn't even sure what Caleb had demanded of him. But Rachel wasn't buying it. There were still tears sliding down his face.

"Okay. Now how about the truth?" She asked, giving him the look that she usually only reserved for Finn when he would lie about what he ate for lunch at work, cause she was trying to keep him on a vegan diet, but you know how that would **not** work with Finn.

"He said…I have to decide. He gave me an ultimatum. Him or Kurt." Blaine reluctantly told them, and Rachel looked furious. That is most certainly not the thing to do in this situation.

"How dare he? After what happened today? How can he ask you to make that decision?" Finn stayed eerily quiet.

"I don't know Rachel, but he did. Now I have to choose between my fiancé, and my best friend, so please make this even harder by asking insane questions." Blaine bit out. Rachel looked taken a back, but kept her composure.

"I don't know," Finn spoke up. "I can sort of see where he's coming from."

"Excuse me?" Rachel screeched, as Blaine just looked questioningly at his friend. Finn just nodded as he continued.

"Think about it Rachel. Imagine if Jesse and you had remained friends…and he had continued to be in love with you throughout the entire time. I can't say I wouldn't want to have given you that ultimatum if the same circumstances played out like they did tonight." He told her. "Or think of it this way…if it were me and Quinn…had she not married Puck right out of high school."

"That's completely beside the points guys. Jesse and Rachel dated. You and Quinn dated! Kurt and I did NOT date."

"Yes you did." Both Rachel and Finn replied.

"You may not have considered them romantic dates Blaine," Rachel started.

"But they were most definitely dates, dude." Finn ended. They both nodded and Blaine just looked bewildered. "Didn't you ever wonder why Burt both loved, and hated you at the same time for most of high school?"

"What do you mean?"

"You did everything a boyfriend was supposed to do, emotionally, mentally for someone…but none of the physicality. Burt never had to worry about Kurt when he was with you, because he knew you weren't into Kurt that way." Finn told him.

"But at the same time, Burt hated you, because every so often Kurt would go home and cry his eyes out over you." Rachel pointed out. Finn nodded.

"I can't count how many times I came home to hearing him trying to cover up the sobs escaping him because of something idiotic you did that just reinforced the whole unintentionally leading him on thing."

"We all knew you weren't doing it on purpose, which is why, no matter how much we wanted to hate you, for making Kurt cry and be in so much pain…we couldn't. Because you didn't know you were doing it."

"So you're saying I've been an oblivious jackass who had no idea my best friend was in so much pain for so long and never did anything to stop it, and in turn made everything worse?"

"Your words, not ours." Finn defended.

"But essentially, yes." Rachel confirmed.

"So what the hell do I do?" He asked them. He knows the three choices. The first choice, is to pick Caleb. Tell Kurt goodbye, that he cannot remain friends with Kurt and that after all this…Kurt's drama is too much for Blaine to handle right now. His second choice is to pick Kurt. Tell Caleb goodbye, that his insecurities in their relationship would have eventually destroyed their marriage anyway and it's a good thing they realized it now, instead of 10 years down the line. The third choice, is to do nothing. Wait for Caleb to ask for an answer, and tell him that he can't make one, and then let Caleb decide what to do. In the first two scenarios, he'd be the bad guy to one of them…in the third scenario…he wouldn't be. But at the same time…in the third scenario he wouldn't be in control, which for something like this, he needed to be in.

So he needs to make a decision. Caleb or Kurt. Kurt or Caleb. Oh why can't he just combine the two of them into one person and make them Kaleb, or Curt? It would make things so much easier on them all.

"We can't tell you what to do, man." Finn told him. Rachel nodded.

"I hate to say it, but this is one decision you have to make on your own. Kurt's our family. You know we'd be biased in anything we say. You're the only one who can make this decision."

With that, the married couple got up and walked away to leave him some time to think. They looked in on Kurt. Being family, they didn't have to abide by the visitation hours the hospital set down.

It was about noon the next day and Blaine had barely gotten any sleep, sitting in the horrible waiting room chairs. He was a wreck. The ultimatum still weighing on his mind. Come 8am when visiting hours started for the day, Blaine walked back into Kurt's room and saw him lying there…still unconscious. His face had bruised up more over night, and everything seemed so horrible. Nothing seemed right. This wasn't supposed to happen to Kurt. This wasn't supposed to happen to Blaine. They weren't supposed to end up in this situation.

But they were. They ended up in this situation because they avoided talking about the heart of the matter for years, and Blaine couldn't handle going on another minute without discussing it.

"Kurt, I know you can't hear me right now, but I have to say something. I understand why you finally told me what you did last night. Really, I do. I can't imagine how hard it must be to attend the engagement party of the person you love most in this world when they're not engaged to you but…at the same time…How could you? With a few short minutes, you took my entire world and turned it upside down. I thought our relationship was purely platonic. I thought our relationship was based on friendship, and nothing more. But you changed that in the blink of an eye. Now, I may have lost the two people in the world I truly care about. I don't know if I can choose, Kurt. I don't know if I can choose between you and Caleb, because Caleb is making me. He gave me the ultimatum. He gave me the ultimatum I'm sure you have thought about giving me in the past. I don't know if I can make this decision."

He sat on the edge of the bed and rested his arms on Kurt's legs. "Kurt, you said things yesterday…then Caleb said things…then Rachel and Finn…and now I'm questioning everything I thought I ever knew. Did I actually love Caleb?" he asked the motionless body. "Or do I actually have romantic feelings for you that I just can't consciously tap into? Caleb thinks he sees it. He says that I look at you in ways that I don't look at him…that I care about you in ways that I don't care about him. If that's true…then maybe there is something there. But I just don't know. I don't think I can figure this out on my own." Blaine started to cry and laid his head down on Kurt's stomach gently and began to sob into the blankets that covered his best friend.

"I need you, Kurt. I need you in my life, and there's nothing in this world that will ever make up for you. Please… just wake up." He looked into the face of his best friend and it remained motionless. He moved up on the bed a tiny bit so he could lean down and kiss the top of Kurt's head. The moment after he did, he heard Kurt's heart monitor spike. "Kurt?" He looked at the screen that shows Kurt's heart rate and aside from the one spike, it remained steady. He leaned down and kissed Kurt's forehead again, and once again there was a spike. "Kurt, you're there. I know you're there. C'mon you need to wake up." He looked around and suddenly had an idea. It was something he never thought he'd do… Something that may would consider wrong when he still hadn't made his decision about Caleb yet but he had to try.

Blaine stared down at Kurt's lips, they seemed dry. It was almost as if they were begging to be kissed. Blaine leaned over and gently placed his lips onto Kurt's in a chaste kiss that would have woken Sleeping Beauty had they lived in a fairy tale. The heart monitor started spiking a bit more than just one beat but still didn't do much for Kurt's unconscious state. "Damn it" Blaine growled and he heard a voice from behind him speak up.

"Did you think this was a Disney Movie?" He whipped around and saw Rachel looking in. He blushed but the tears that had been falling down his face earlier were still present.

"It was worth a shot." Blaine shrugged.

"So did you choose?" Rachel asked and he just shook his head.

"I can't choose while Kurt is still in a coma. If Caleb can't understand that, fuck'em. I'll deal with him some other time." Rachel smiled knowingly, but remained tightlipped and said nothing.

"Come on Blaine, let's go get some coffee. If that kiss didn't wake him up, I'm not sure he's going to wake up in the next 10 minutes." Blaine nodded, kissing Kurt's forehead one more time, taking pleasure in the expected spike in his heart monitor, even if nothing else happened.

Twenty minutes later Rachel and Blaine were walking back up to Kurt's room when they saw doctors and nurses rushing in and out of it. They took one look at each other and ran towards the room and quickly asked a nurse what happened. It shocked them both when she said "he woke up." They burst into the room and see the doctor who had treated Kurt the night before turned around and walked out of the room.

"Kurt!" Rachel squealed as she ran over towards the bed and flung her arms around his neck as she hugged him as if she wasn't going to let him go.

"Rachel, I'm so sorry." He apologized to her, not even realizing that Blaine was in the room. "I'm so sorry for everything I did last night. I was a wreck last night." He cried as Rachel stood up and shook her head.

"No feeling sorry for yourself, Kurt Hummel. We didn't know if you were going to come out of this coma, so no pity parties." She admonished him, and he had the shame to look guilty.

"We?" Blaine stepped in at this and confirmed.

"We." He told him as Kurt's head whipped (as slowly as he could, considering he suffered from whiplash the night before) around to see Blaine standing by the entrance to his room.

"Blaine…" Kurt whispered, clearly remembering everything that happened prior to the crash last night.

"Kurt…" Blaine walked towards the bed and sat down, in the same spot he had been earlier.

"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked, not wanting to believe the best, when it could possibly be the worst.

"Well, there's no protocol on what to do when your best friend tells you he loves you at your engagement party and then goes off and crashes his Corvette around a telephone pole only to end up in a coma all night. So I had to improvise." Blaine tried to joke.

"Oh gosh… please tell me I did not mess things up between you and Caleb." Kurt pleaded, sincerity shone in his eyes. Blaine didn't look Kurt directly in the eyes as he said the following sentence.

"I thought you'd have preferred if that happened." Kurt gasped.

"Oh no. Blaine, no. That's the last thing I wanted. The absolutely last thing I wanted to happen because of last night." Kurt shook his head and held it in his hands after a couple seconds.

"Rachel, can you give us some privacy?" Blaine asked, and she nodded, kissing Kurt on the forehead and telling him that she'll be back soon. "So, now that we're both sober." He said pointedly, and Kurt nodded. "Can we discuss what actually happened last night….and for the past 5 years? Because apparently you've been keeping things from me." Blaine sounded sad. "Our friendship has always been based on honesty, Kurt. Why did you keep this from me for so long?"

"Before I say anything else, I want you to know, that I tried getting passed it. I really tried. Those 6 months I spent abroad? That wasn't totally about immersing myself in French culture. It was about 25% immersing myself in France, and 75% trying to put distance between us so that I could get over you. But it didn't work. It worked in the opposite way and made my feelings for you stronger."

"You could have said something…so many times. Why didn't you?"

"When Blaine? When would have been a good time to tell you? Senior year of High School when you were in the middle of your long distance relationship with Nick?" Kurt pointed out. "Or during our freshman year when you found yourself heartbroken after he cheated on you? Sophomore year when you dated that ditzy blonde who made me sick? Or our junior year when you finally met Caleb? Every time you had a bad breakup, I kept telling myself, I'd give you a couple months to get over that person before telling you…that way…I knew I wouldn't be the rebound if anything happened. Turns out…You never needed a couple months, so I always lost my chance and my nerve." Kurt admitted. "I'm not going to deny anything I said last night. That is all burned into my memory. The last thing I wanted though, was for yours and Caleb's relationship to suffer because of my inability to hold my alcohol."

"Caleb's and my relationship problems are our own fault, it has nothing to do with what happened last night." Which wasn't completely true, because none of it would have come to light if it hadn't been for last night. The problems had been there, but the light hadn't been cast upon them quite yet.

"So something did…happen while I was…unconscious." Blaine nodded.

"Yes. He... Uhh. He gave me an ultimatum." Kurt's eyes went wide.

"He did not." Blaine nodded.

"He did. Last night, he said some…interesting and potentially true things. Now, I have to make a choice."

"Me or him, right?" Kurt asked, and Blaine nodded. "Have you come to a decision yet?" Not wanting to know if this was the last conversation he and his best friend would ever have, but Blaine shook his head.

"I couldn't make any decision until I knew you were going to be okay, until you were out of the coma."

"And now?"

"I don't know." Blaine whispered, not sure what to say.

Kurt nodded and thought about it for a moment. He loved Blaine, he truly did, and what was that phrase _if you love something, let it go?_ "You should choose him." Kurt told him, which was not something Blaine expected to hear come out of Kurt's mouth. "He's your fiancé, Blaine. Clearly you agreed to marry him for a reason." That was true at the very least. "Just know…I'd never have asked you to choose." Kurt said as he slid down into the hospital bed and pulled the covers over himself. Blaine nodded and walked out the door.

Blaine lived only about 15 blocks away from his home, so he decided to walk home, instead of take a taxi, since Caleb had driven their car home the night before. On his way home, he kept thinking about Caleb's insecurities and how he didn't truly think that Blaine loved him. How Caleb was jealous of Kurt. How Kurt, while sober kept his emotions in check and wouldn't let things get out of control. He looked at how Caleb had made him choose, while Kurt had chosen the night before to take himself out of the equation instead of making Blaine make the decision. All these thoughts kept swimming around Blaine's head throughout this walk home, and by the time he reached his and Caleb's home, he realized what he was about to do, was going to change his life forever.

He walked in the front door and called out Caleb's name. The cars had been there, so obviously his fiancé was home, even if he didn't know where he was. Blaine walked into the kitchen to find Caleb sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the paper. "Hi." Blaine uncalmly said, as his fiancé looked up, apprehension written all over his face.

"Hey…" Blaine sat down at the table and they just sat there in awkward silence for a few moments before Caleb spoke again. "So is he still…"

"He's awake." Blaine confirmed. "He woke up about an hour ago."

"That's good….That he's…that's good." Caleb felt awkward sitting around talking about Kurt like he hadn't just derailed their entire relationship.

"Caleb…did you mean it?" Blaine asked, needing to know if after Caleb had time to sleep on it, if he really needed the reassurance that a 'him or me' ultimatum would give. "The ultimatum…did you really mean it?"

"Blaine, I know you want me to say no, that I didn't mean it. That I spoke out of anger, but I didn't. I need you to pick because, I can't marry someone, who is leading someone else on. I can't marry someone who isn't as committed to our relationship as I am." Blaine nodded, he was expecting as much. His hands were under the table, twiddling his thumbs, because he was having trouble figuring out what to say next.

"Caleb, I love you. I would love nothing more than to be married to you." Caleb's face lit up, but only for a brief moment, because Blaine was not finished. "But there is no way that anyone I be with, can ever try and control my life, like you are trying to do." Caleb looked confused. "Who do you think you are? Trying to decide who I can, and cannot be friends with? That is not your decision, that decision rests upon my shoulders, and my shoulders alone." He bites out angrily, as Caleb sits flabbergasted.

"Blaine, I just meant that…"

"I know exactly what you meant." Blaine calmed down. "You're jealous that I _might_ like Kurt a tiny bit. Jealous that there is a _slight_ possibility that not all my heart belongs to you. I was willing to give you my entire heart, hell I had given you my entire heart. But trying to force me into giving up my best friend, the one person in this world that I've always been able to talk to, no matter what the situation? That's not right." He slipped the ring he was wearing off of his ring finger and placed it on the table. He stood up and stared down at his ex-fiancé. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I'm glad this came out in the open now. At least I didn't waste 10 years married to you, before your insecurities came out." He walked over towards the key hook and grabbed the keys to his Prius off of it, and turned to leave the kitchen. "Goodbye Caleb."

Blaine walked back into Kurt's hospital room and Kurt was fast asleep, though this time, Blaine could tell it was a normal sleep, instead of a coma sleep. Kurt was moving around in his sleep like he usually did, and his facial expressions kept changing. He just sat down on the edge of the bed and just looked at his friend. He smiled, thinking back to all the times that they spent together in high school and college. They really were co-dependent, as much as he hated to admit it, and the fact that he almost made a decision to go his life without Kurt…was almost unbearable to think about. Blaine grabbed onto Kurt's arm gently and slowly shook him awake. Kurt woke up and saw Blaine sitting there, shocked that when he walked out of his room earlier, it wasn't the last time they'd ever see each other.

"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked, the sleepy haze evident in his voice.

"I made my decision." Blaine told him, and motioned for Kurt to move over towards the edge of the bed so Blaine could lay down with Kurt.

"Why would you choose me, instead of Caleb?" Blaine laid on his side, just staring at Kurt's face.

"I thought about it. I thought about my life without you, and I thought about my life without Caleb. I realized there was one scenario that left me scared and anxious when I thought about it. I couldn't choose that life." Blaine said as he snuggled up to Kurt, like they used to do when they were teens.

"Have you told him, yet?" Blaine nodded. "How did he take it?"

"Dunno. Didn't really give him a chance to respond." Blaine let out a nervous chuckle. "I'm not worried about him though." He told his best friend. "He knew the risk of asking me to make that decision." Kurt nodded.

They laid there for a good 10 minutes before either of them spoke, just enjoying the feel of being next to one another. It was something they hadn't experienced since Caleb had come into the picture, and they both missed it terribly. It was as if their lives were back to the way they were supposed to be. Just the two of them: Kurt and Blaine against the world. Two unstoppable forces uniting for good, or just good times.

"Blaine?"

"Hmm?"

"What does this mean for…" Kurt gulped, and didn't finish the sentence, but Blaine knew what he meant.

"I'm not completely sure, Kurt." Kurt's face fell slightly, enough that an outside observer wouldn't have been able to tell, but to someone like Blaine who knew Kurt so well, was able to tell within an instant. "Kurt, I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel for you, the way you feel for me." Blaine admitted. "You know I love you, I've always loved you." This was the truth at least, they both knew that. Even if it was a different type of love than Kurt wanted.

"I know you do." Kurt whispered.

"But I'm willing to see where life takes us." He said as he pushed himself up and leaned over Kurt's body which was lying helplessly on the bed. He stared into Kurt's eyes which gave him everything he ever needed: love, acceptance, trust, honor and loyalty. Kurt smiled and Blaine leaned down to place his lips onto Kurt's once again (though this time Kurt was awake), and Kurt returned the kiss immediately, relishing in the experience he never thought he'd be able to have. After about ten seconds, they broke apart. Kurt was elated and Blaine was shocked. Like really shocked. He had experienced a 'spark' when kissing guys before. He experienced what he originally thought were fireworks with Caleb. But after that one chaste kiss with Kurt, man Caleb was like a slow burning candle. His kiss with Kurt was all fireworks and wildfires. If it only took one spark to start a forest fire, they better never kiss near trees, because they'd be brought up on charges. "Wow…" Blaine breathed out, as Kurt did the same.

"Wow indeed." They both took one look at each other before diving in again, this time the concept of 'chaste' was not in their vocabulary.

An hour later, Rachel and Finn walked into Kurt's room and found the two friends sleeping side by side in the tiny hospital bed. Their lips red and puffy and smiles on both their faces. Without saying anything, they both backtracked, and walked out, not wanting to interrupt the moment that had been in the making for _far too long._

Epilogue: 8 years later

Blaine was sitting in the middle of his beige living room, on his brown couch listening to his daughter squeal in her bedroom while she played with her dolls. His husband was in the bathroom giving their son a bath and everything felt very déjà vu. He stood up and walked into his daughter's room to get her ready for his bath, like he had a hundred times before and saw her playing with Barbies…all which were fully clothed.

Soon she scampered off down the hall towards the bathroom where her _Daddy_ was giving her brother a bath, and as Blaine followed her down the hall he slowly remembered this same exact feeling and where he remembered it from. He smiled, thinking back to the day that he found the _real_ love of his life. He peaked into the bathroom to see Kurt kneeling on the bathroom rug in sweatpants, because there's no way he'd ruin any of his designer clothes by _kneeling_ on the _bathroom_ floor, and getting them all wet, because both of their kids were avid splashers while taking baths. "Need any help, hon?" Blaine asked. Kurt's soaked shirt and hair let him know that was probably a yes, but Kurt was too stubborn to say so.

"No, I'm already soaking wet, might as well let me get the rest of the way and save one of our clothes."

"Hmm…maybe we can do something about those _wet clothes later." Blaine asked suggestively, while wiggling his eyebrows. The love of his life just rolled his eyes._

" _Maybe." He smiled. "But first, you're on clothing, and story patrol for Marc, while I'm dealing with Becca." Blaine nodded and accepted the squirming 1 year old out of the bath that Kurt had just lifted him out of._

" _C'mon Marc. Let's get you dressed and ready for bed."_

 _It was then that Blaine realized that 8 years ago, when Kurt had been in his coma, he might not have been able to clearly see his life with Caleb all too well, but his subconscious had clearly been able to visualize a life with Kurt. "Yea…" he whispered to himself. "This is the way things are supposed to be."_


End file.
